Help me with some sound effects?

HBlack

Underage Member
I'm working on doing the foley for a short I just shot, and I'm having some trouble with some of the sounds. Those being the gunshots, blood sprays and bullet impacts.

For the gunshots, it's a colt 1911 (.45 pistol) being fired in an unfinished basement. I'm thinking of finding a clean gunshot sound without any reverberation, recording it being played over speakers in the location, then layering that with the original sound. Would that be a good way of doing it? Any alternate methods would be appreciated. Also, if anybody has a suitable sound (clean, loud gunshot) they could send me, or knows where to find one, that would be great. Doesn't need to be free, but under $10 would be nice. I just want this to sound "hollywood real" (so that it sounds right to the viewer), absolute realism isn't necessary.

Blood landing is easy enough, but I'm not sure what I should use for it spraying. For reference, there's two chest shots and a head shot. Any ideas on what to use for it spraying out of the chest? I want it to sound natural as opposed to over the top. Sort of a gurgling sound I suppose.

Also need to figure out what to use for the chest and head hits. At the moment I'm thinking of hitting meat and a watermelon with a hammer, but I'm not sure that'll produce what I'm looking for.

So any help/sounds/advice is much appreciated, thanks.

EDIT: Also, I'm going to be looking for a composer soon. Can anyone point me in the direction of someone who could make an awesome 2 minutes of music for ~$100?
 
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I'm aware of sounddogs, but with the heavy compression on the previews it's hard to determine what would work. I was kinda hoping people would point me in the direction of sounds they've used, or how to make them myself. Thanks though, I'll have another look at it.
 
A little correction it's Foley not foley (it's someone's name) and your working on FX not Foley anyway. Foley is recorded live to picture.

Sonic boom is a good set for gun sounds but you'll have to use Sound Dogs or somebody like that to get just a few cuts from the collection. Professional (sort of a loaded term but...) sound FX CD's run around $100/ CD and up.
If you want to get "Hollywood" realism you will need to layer up. 1-2 shots for the gunshot, a main one and probably something with more beef. Body shot would also be a bunch of layers. A hit, some soft splatter hit, maybe a bit of bone crack, chest hit air (your knocking the wind out of him) etc. Cover the smallest bits and the result will be that huge detailed "Hollywood" gunshot. You should probably to the gunshot with a little slap back echo. The problem with "worldizing" it which is a good technique is that with a sharp sound like a gunshot you risk softening it and that is not the direction you want to go. You don't need much room anyway -- probably.

A hammer will probably slice through the watermelon with out saying much. Probably better off with a club or a pipe but test them on something first and make sure you don't hear pipe ring etc.
 
A little correction it's Foley not foley (it's someone's name) and your working on FX not Foley anyway. Foley is recorded live to picture.
Not to be confused with Matt Foley the wrestler. And would you believe The Three Stooges were some of the first productions to use Foley?
 
If you're handy with a slingshot, a ballbearing punching into an uncooked pot-roast can make a nice impact. If you're lucky, you may even get a bit of a whistle in the passby.

My favorite Foley prop for gross and violent adds is undoubtedly a little tub of "fart putty." It's available in most dollar-stores and toy stores, and its made under a variety of trade-names. It's basically made up of borax and white glue, with a bit of glitter and colour added. Anyway, take it out of the tub and get it wet (not too wet or it'll break down) and you can use it to make all sorts of repulsive yet organic squishes and squirts.
 
Thanks everyone. That fart putty idea is pretty clever, I'll be sure to look around for some.

Finding all the sounds to layer up for this could be difficult, but I'll experiment for a few things. If anyone has any ideas for how to make parts of the chest/head hits, that'd be great.
 
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